Page 258 - WUTHERING HEIGHTS
P. 258

Wuthering Heights


                                     ’Oh, you see, Nelly, he would not relent a moment to
                                  keep me out of the grave. THAT is how I’m loved! Well,
                                  never mind. That is not MY Heathcliff. I shall love mine
                                  yet; and take him with me: he’s in my soul. And,’ added

                                  she musingly, ‘the thing that irks me most is this shattered
                                  prison, after all. I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m
                                  wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be
                                  always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and
                                  yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but
                                  really with it, and in it. Nelly, you think you are better
                                  and more fortunate than I; in full health and strength: you
                                  are sorry for me - very soon that will be altered. I shall be
                                  sorry for YOU. I shall be incomparably beyond and above
                                  you all. I WONDER he won’t be near me!’ She went on
                                  to herself. ‘I thought he wished it. Heathcliff, dear! you
                                  should not be sullen now. Do come to me, Heathcliff.’
                                     In her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the
                                  arm of the chair. At that earnest appeal he turned to her,
                                  looking absolutely desperate. His eyes, wide and wet, at
                                  last flashed fiercely on her; his breast heaved convulsively.
                                  An instant they held asunder, and then how they met I
                                  hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he caught
                                  her, and they were locked in an embrace from which I
                                  thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact,



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